Dynamically generating a privacy summary

ABSTRACT

A system and method for dynamically generating a privacy summary is provided. The present invention provides a system and method for dynamically generating a privacy summary. A profile for a user is generated. One or more privacy setting selections are received from the user associated with the profile. The profile associated with the user is updated to incorporate the one or more privacy setting selections. A privacy summary is then generated for the profile based on the one or more privacy setting selections.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to privacy settings, and moreparticularly to systems and methods for dynamically generating a privacysummary.

2. Description of Related Art

Conventionally, users of networking websites connect with other users byproviding information about themselves. For example, a user may postcontact information, background information, current job position,hobbies, and so forth. Other users may contact the user based on commoninterests or for any other reason.

Recently, social networking websites have developed systems for betterconnecting various users. For example, users may be grouped togetherbased on geographical location, employer, job type, and so forth. Associal networking has grown more popular, users have realized a need fora certain amount of privacy. In other words, not every particular userwants all the other users to be able to access the information about theparticular user.

There are existing mechanisms that allow the user to display informationabout the user or to not display their information. Some mechanisms mayallow the user to select settings that display only certain informationto the users. Typically, however, these mechanisms are all or nothing.In other words, the user can choose to display pieces of the informationor not. Further, often the user is unaware of what the settings selectedrepresent with respect to the information that will, or will not, bedisplayed about the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method for dynamicallygenerating a privacy summary. In a method according to one embodiment ofthe invention, a profile for a user is generated. One or more privacysetting selections are received from the user associated with theprofile. The profile associated with the user is updated to incorporatethe one or more privacy setting selections. A privacy summary is thengenerated for the profile based on the one or more privacy settingselections.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary architecture fordynamically generating a privacy summary;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary social networkprovider;

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary privacy settingsengine;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary privacy settingselections screen;

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary privacy summary;and

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart showing an exemplary process fordynamically generating a privacy summary.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A system and method for dynamically generating a privacy summary isprovided. A user may select privacy settings associated with variousgroups or categories. A user profile may then be updated to reflect theprivacy settings selected. A privacy summary is generated based on theprivacy settings selected associated with the user profile. The privacysummary may be displayed to the user as a narrative explaining what eachother user or group of users can access about the user based on theprivacy settings selected by the user. Accordingly, a particular usermay better be able to understand the access to the particular user'sinformation granted to other users based on the privacy summary.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary architecture fordynamically generating a privacy summary. User devices 102, such as auser device 102A, a user device 102B, and a user device 102N,communicate over a network 104 with a social network provider 106. Theuser devices 102A-102N may comprise any device associated with one ormore users, such as a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant,a desktop or a laptop computer, and so forth. Any type of user devices102 are within the scope of various embodiments.

The social network provider 106 may comprise any user or entity thatprovides social networking services, communication services, datingservices, and so forth. For example, the social network provider 106 mayhost a website that allows one or more users at the user devices 102 tocommunicate with one another via the website. In one instance, the userassociated with the user device 102A may communicate with the userassociated with the user device 102B via a social networking websiteassociated with the social network provider 106 that offers the user anopportunity to connect or reconnect with one or more other users thatattended, for example, the same university as the user.

A privacy settings engine 108 is coupled to the social network provider106. The privacy settings engine 108 can receive privacy settingsselections from the users at the user devices 102. The privacy settingsengine 108 can save the privacy setting selections to a profileassociated with each user. Once the privacy setting selections areselected by the user, the privacy settings engine 108 can generate aprivacy summary for the user that explains to the user what each of theprivacy settings selections means with respect to what other users canaccess about the user that selected the privacy settings.

For example, a user at the user device 102A selects an option to displayphotos associated with a user profile for the user only to “friends” ofthat user. Photos may include audio/video. Audio/video is any audio,video, audiovisual, pictorial, photograph, image form, and/or variationsand combinations thereof. The privacy summary generated by the privacysettings engine 108 explains that people that comprise the “friends”grouping will be able to view photos and photo albums for the user, butpeople that comprise the “school” grouping and the “geography” groupingwill not be able to access the photos.

Although the users at the user devices 102 can group other usersaccording to categories, such as “friends”, “school”, “geography”,“business”, and so forth, any type of grouping may be employed by theuser and/or the social network provider 106. Further, according to someembodiments, the user may select privacy settings for individual users.For instance, the user may select privacy settings for Jane, privacysettings for John, and/or privacy settings for grouping of users, whichmay or may not include Jane and John.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an exemplary social network provider 106 isillustrated. The social network provider 106 may comprise a server, aclient device, or any other device.

The social network provider 106 includes a profile generator 202 forcreating the profile for the user, as discussed herein. For example, theuser may provide contact information, friends, photos, and so forth toassociate with the profile for the user. The profile generator 202utilizes the information provided by the user to generate the profile(i.e., the user profile). As discussed herein, the profile may includeone or more categories or subcategories and privacy settings selectionmay be provided for each of the one or more categories or subcategories.

The social network provider 106 includes a communications interface 204for communicating with the user devices 102, such as the user device102A-102N described herein, over the network 104. The user devices 102communicate various types of information, such as privacy settingsselections, groupings of other users, and so forth to the social networkprovider 106 via the communications interface 204. Any type ofcommunications interface 204 is within the scope of various embodiments.

A display engine/GUI 206 may also be provided by the social networkprovider 106. The display engine/GUI 206 displays the privacy settingsselections, privacy summary, and so forth to the users associated withthe user devices 102. The users can interact with the social networkprovider 106 via the display engine/GUI 206. For example, the users canselect privacy settings, change privacy settings, access their own userprofile, access other users' information available via the socialnetwork provider, and so forth via the display engine/GUI 206.

A user profile database 208 is provided for storing data associated witheach of the users, such as the users associated with the user device102A-102N, in the user profiles generated by the profile generator 202.When the users at the user devices 102 select the privacy settings toassociate with their user profiles, the user profile database 208updates the user data associated with each user profile. Accordingly,the privacy settings selections are stored in association with each userprofile. The user profiles and/or the privacy settings selections may bestored, modified, added, and so forth to any storage medium, accordingto some embodiments.

According to exemplary embodiments, one or more networks may be providedfor each user. Each user may select different privacy settings fordifferent networks. For example, the user at the user device 102A mayhave a network comprised of people grouped according to a universityattended, a network comprised of people grouped according to the user'sgeographical location of residence, a network comprised of peoplegrouped according to a common field of work, a network comprised ofpeople grouped according to a particular business, and so forth. Theuser at the user device 102A can then select privacy settings for eachof these networks.

Any type of network may be provided by the social network provider 106.In other words, a network may comprise people grouped according to anytype of category, such as various social networks described herein, like“friends”, “geographical location”, and so forth. The user may specifythe networks, the categories, subcategories, and so forth and/or thenetworks, the categories, the subcategories, and so on may bepredetermined by the social network provider 106.

A single user profile may represent the various networks in which theuser participates, with different privacy setting options available foreach network, as discussed herein. For example, the user at the userdevice 102A may select different privacy settings for a universitynetwork and for a geographical location network. Alternatively, the userat the user device 102A may have a separate user profile for eachnetwork in which the user participates, with different privacy settingoptions available for each user profile. For example, the user at theuser device 102A may have a separate user profile for the universitynetwork and for the geographical location network, each user profilehaving privacy setting options available for each network by virtue ofthe separate user profiles associated with each of the networks.

According to some embodiments, the user can select the same privacysettings for one or more of the networks. In other words, the socialnetwork provider 106 may provide the user with an option to selectprivacy settings once for more than one of the networks and/or more thanone category or subcategory. Accordingly, the user may select one set ofprivacy settings for both the university network and the geographicallocation network.

Although the social network provider 106 is described as being comprisedof various components (the communications interface 204, the displayengine/GUI 206, and the user profile database 208), fewer or morecomponents may comprise the social network provider 106 and still fallwithin the scope of various embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary privacy settingsengine 108. A privacy setting selections component 302 receives theprivacy settings selections from the user. For example, the userassociated with the user device 102A selects from various optionsrelated to privacy for one or more networks, categories, and/orsubcategories. The privacy setting selections component 302 updates theuser profile, such as the user profile stored in the user profiledatabase 208, with the privacy settings selected by the user.

A privacy summary templates component 304 utilizes the privacy settingselections to determine which privacy summary templates apply given theparticular privacy setting selections from the user. For example, theprivacy summary templates component 304 can match a privacy paragraph toeach privacy setting selection, such as “only your friends.” The privacyparagraph may change for privacy setting selections in differentcategories. For example, the privacy paragraph for “only your friends”in a photo album category may be different from the privacy paragraphfor “only your friends” in a contact information category.Alternatively, the privacy paragraph for one or more of the privacysettings selections may be shared among one or more categories. Anynumber of privacy summary templates may be provided.

A privacy summary generator 306 utilizes the privacy summary templatesfrom the privacy summary templates component 304 to generate an entireprivacy summary. According to some embodiments, the privacy summarytemplates component 304 comprises a database or other storage mediumthat stores the privacy summary templates, which the privacy summarygenerator 306 accesses in order to generate the privacy summary. Theprivacy summary generator may modify the privacy summary templates, inorder to customize the privacy summary, according to some embodiments.For instance, the privacy summary generator 306 may insert theparticular network name, such as Yale, San Jose, Calif., and so forth,into the privacy summary in order to customize the privacy summary forthe particular user to whom the privacy setting selections are beingexplained via the privacy summary.

The privacy summary generator 306 may then forward the privacy summaryto the display engine/GUI 206 for display to the user associated withthe particular privacy summary. The privacy setting selections and theprivacy summary are discussed in further detail in association withFIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an exemplary privacy settingselections screen 400. A category of “contact information” 402 isdisplayed. Accordingly, the user may select from various privacysettings related to the user's contact information 402. As discussedherein, the user may choose from various privacy settings related to anycategory or subcategory, such as a bulletin board for the particularuser, groups for the particular user, friends for the particular user,profile for the particular user, status for the particular user, photosfor the particular user, and so forth.

In the screen 400 in FIG. 4, the user can select privacy settings forthe categories “preferred email” 404, “mobile phone” 406, and “friends”408. The contact information 402 category may include fewer or morecategories or subcategories and still fall within the scope of variousembodiments. Further, each category or subcategory, such as categories404, 406, and 408, on the screen 400 includes four options 410, butfewer or more options, such as the options 410 on the screen 400, may beprovided and still fall within the scope of various embodiments. Oncethe user selects one or more of the options 410 for the contactinformation 402 category, the user profile database 208 is updated toreflect the privacy setting selections chosen from the options 410.

As discussed herein, the display engine/GUI 206 may display the privacysettings selection 400 screen. Further, as also discussed herein, theuser may input selections for various privacy setting selectionsassociated with one or more categories other than the contactinformation 402 category shown in FIG. 4. Accordingly, the user profiledatabase 208 is updated with the user's privacy setting selections foreach category and/or subcategory. The user profile and/or the privacysetting selections, directly, are utilized by the privacy summarygenerator 306 to generate the privacy summary. The display engine/GUI206 is then utilized to display the privacy summary to the user, inorder to better assist the user in understanding the consequences of theprivacy setting selections chosen by the user.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an exemplary privacy summary 500 is shown. Asdiscussed herein, the privacy summary 500 utilizes the privacy settingselections from the user and explains, according to the category, thesubcategory, and/or the network, what the user's selections from theprivacy setting selections mean. For example, assume that the user atthe user device 102A selected the option “everyone from San Francisco,Calif., Social Network Provider, and Harvard” from options provided inassociation with a “profile” category (not shown) and the option 410“only your friends” for the contact information 402 category, discussedin FIG. 4. Accordingly, the privacy summary indicates to the user thatpeople comprising the geographical location network “San Francisco,Calif.”, people using or subscribed to the Social Network Provider'sservices, such as the social network provider 106 discussed herein, andpeople comprising the college network “Harvard” can access the profilefor the user at the user device 102A.

On the other hand, the privacy summary 500 also indicates to the userthat since the user selected the option 410 “only your friends” for thecontact information 402 category, the privacy setting selection of theoption 410 “only your friends” means that only people comprising thecategory or the subcategory of “friends” can access the preferred email404, the mobile phone 406, the friends 408 grouping, and other contactinformation such as, for example, the instant messenger address (notshown), the home phone (not shown), and the home address (not shown)associated with the profile for the user at the user device 102A. Thus,people comprising “friends of your friends from San Francisco, Calif.,Social Network Provider, and Harvard” and “everyone from San Francisco,Calif., Social Network Provider, and Harvard” may be able to access someof the contact information associated with the user's profile, butcannot access all of the contact information 402 for the user at theuser device 102A, such as the preferred email 404, the mobile phone 406,and/or any other contact information the user restricts via the privacysettings. Further, because the user at the user device 102A restrictedthe privacy settings, only “friends of friends” can see the user's listof friends. Thus, the privacy summary in FIG. 5 explains that usersaccessing data via the social network provider 106 cannot view theuser's list of friends unless the particular users happen to also begrouped in the “friends” of the user's “friends from Harvard” category,for instance.

The user may select an “edit settings” link 502 in order to edit theprivacy setting selections chosen. The user can access the “editsettings” link 502 via the privacy summary 500 or the user can accessthe privacy setting selections in any other manner, such as by selectinga category or subcategory from the user's profile and modifying theprivacy setting selections for the category or subcategory selected. Asdiscussed herein, any type of networks, categories, subcategories, andprivacy setting selections may be provided. Further, any type of privacysummary may be generated for explaining the privacy setting selectionschosen by the user at the user device 102A and what the particularprivacy setting selections mean with respect to what other users canaccess about the user at the user device 102A.

The privacy settings selection for the category of “photos” 504 is alsoexplained in the exemplary privacy summary 500 shown in FIG. 5. Asdiscussed herein, different paragraphs explaining the privacy settingselections may be provided for each category, combined paragraphs mayexplain privacy setting selections for one or more categories, and soforth. One or more “edit settings” links 502 may be provided forallowing the user to change the privacy setting selections from theprivacy summary 500.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary process fordynamically generating a privacy summary. At step 602, a user profile isgenerated. As discussed herein, the user profile may include one or morenetworks or separate user profiles may be generated for one or morenetworks, such as a geographical location network, a college network,and so forth. The user profile may include one or more categories orsubcategories, such as photos, groups, friends, bulletin board, contactinformation, events, and so forth.

At step 604, one or more privacy setting selections are received from auser associated with the profile. As discussed herein, the user mayenter the privacy setting selections via the display engine/GUI 206 atthe social network provider 106. Thus, the user can control theinformation people see in the user's profile.

At step 606, the profile associated with the user is updated toincorporate the one or more privacy setting selections. As discussedherein, the privacy setting selections are used to update the userprofile in the user profile database 208 in order to reflect choicesregarding privacy from the user and to associate those choices regardingprivacy with the one or more networks, categories, and or subcategoriesspecified by the user and/or the social network provider 106.

At step 608, a privacy summary for the profile is generated based on theone or more privacy setting selections. As discussed herein, the profilefor the particular user making the privacy setting selections includesthe privacy summary explaining to the particular user the consequencesor meaning of the privacy setting selection. The privacy summary, suchas the exemplary privacy summary 500 illustrated in FIG. 5, may explainthe privacy setting selections for each network, category, and/orsubcategory. Further, the privacy summary 500 may combine explanationsfor the one or more networks, categories, and/or subcategories into oneor more categories.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. For example, any of the elements associated with the privacysummary may employ any of the desired functionality set forthhereinabove. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodimentshould not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments.

1. A method comprising: accessing a profile for a user stored in anelectronic database; presenting a first user interface to the user;receiving a plurality of privacy setting selections provided by the userusing the first user interface, wherein the privacy settings selectionsidentify, for each of a plurality of different categories of informationassociated with the user, one or more other users who can access thatcategory of information; updating the profile associated with the userto incorporate the plurality of privacy setting selections; generating,by a processor, a narrative explanation of which other users can accesswhich categories of information based on the privacy settingsselections, wherein generating the narrative explanation comprises, forone or more of the privacy settings selections, selecting a narrativeexplanation template based on the privacy settings selection, whereinthe narrative explanation template comprises text that identifies agroup of other users who can access a category of information about theuser profile based on the privacy settings selection; and providing thenarrative explanation to the user associated with the profile in asecond user interface after receiving the privacy setting selectionsprovided using the first user interface.
 2. The method recited in claim1, further comprising displaying the narrative explanation to the userassociated with the profile.
 3. The method recited in claim 1, furthercomprising displaying information associated with the profile to one ormore other users based on the privacy setting selections.
 4. The methodrecited in claim 3, wherein the one or more other users comprise one ormore groups.
 5. The method recited in claim 3, wherein the narrativeexplanation comprises the information associated with the profile thatthe one or more other users can access based on the privacy settingselections.
 6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the one or moreprivacy settings are associated with one or more networks associatedwith the user.
 7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein the one or moreprivacy settings selections are associated with one or more categoriesassociated with the one or more networks.
 8. A system comprising: anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructionscomprising: a profile generator configured to generate a profile for auser; a communications interface configured to present a first userinterface to the user and to receive a plurality of privacy settingselections provided by the user using the first user interface, whereinone or more of the privacy settings selections relates to at least acategory identify, for each of a plurality of different categories ofinformation associated with the user, and one or more other users whocan access that category of information; a user profile managementmodule, coupled to the communications interface, configured to updatethe profile associated with the user to incorporate the plurality ofprivacy setting selections; and a privacy settings engine, coupled tothe user profile management module, configured to generate a narrativeexplanation of which other users can access which categories ofinformation about the user based on the privacy settings selections,wherein the privacy settings engine is configured to generate anarrative explanation for the profile based on the one or more privacysetting selections by, for one or more of the privacy settingsselections, selecting a narrative explanation template based on theprivacy settings selection, wherein the narrative explanation templatecomprises text that identifies a group of other users who can access acategory of information about the user profile based on the privacysettings selection; wherein the communications interface is furtherconfigured to provide the narrative explanation to the user associatedwith the profile in a second user interface after receiving the privacysetting selections via the first user interface; and a processorconfigured to execute the instructions.
 9. The system recited in claim8, further comprising a display engine configured to display thenarrative explanation to the user associated with the profile.
 10. Thesystem recited in claim 8, wherein a display engine is configured todisplay information associated with the profile to one or more otherusers based on the privacy setting selections.
 11. The system recited inclaim 10, wherein the one or more other users comprise one or moregroups.
 12. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the narrativeexplanation comprises the information associated with the profile thatthe one or more other users can access based on the privacy settingselections.
 13. The system recited in claim 12, wherein the narrativeexplanation of the information associated with the profile that the oneor more other users can access based on the privacy setting selectionsincludes an explanation by category of photos associated with theprofile that the one or more other users can access based on the privacysetting selections.
 14. The system recited in claim 8, wherein the oneor more privacy settings are associated with one or more networksassociated with the user.
 15. The system recited in claim 14, whereinthe one or more privacy settings selections are associated with one ormore categories associated with the one or more networks.
 16. Anon-transitory computer program embodied on a computer readable storagemedium having encoded thereon instructions for dynamically generating aprivacy summary comprising: accessing a profile for a user stored in anelectronic database; presenting a first user interface to the user;receiving a plurality of privacy setting selections provided by the userusing the first user interface, wherein the privacy settings selectionsidentify, for each of a plurality of different categories of informationassociated with the user, one or more other users who can access thatcategory of information; updating the profile associated with the userto incorporate the plurality of privacy setting selections; generating,by a processor, a narrative explanation of which other users can accesswhich categories of information based on the privacy settingsselections, wherein generating the narrative explanation comprises, forone or more of the privacy settings selections, selecting a narrativeexplanation template based on the privacy settings selection, whereinthe narrative explanation template comprises text that identifies agroup of other users who can access a category of information about theuser profile based on the privacy settings selection; and providing thenarrative explanation to the user associated with the profile in asecond user interface after receiving the privacy setting selectionsprovided using the first user interface.
 17. The computer programrecited in claim 16, further comprising displaying the narrativeexplanation to the user associated with the profile.
 18. The computerprogram recited in claim 16, further comprising displaying informationassociated with the profile to one or more other users based on theprivacy setting selections.
 19. The computer program recited in claim18, wherein the one or more other users comprise one or more groups. 20.The computer program recited in claim 18, wherein the narrativeexplanation comprises the information associated with the profile thatthe one or more other users can access based on the privacy settingselections.
 21. The computer program recited in claim 16, wherein theone or more privacy settings are associated with one or more networksassociated with the user.
 22. The computer program recited in claim 21,wherein the one or more privacy settings selections are associated withone or more categories associated with the one or more networks.